{"id":10831,"date":"2023-12-29T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T18:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/?p=10831"},"modified":"2023-12-29T19:15:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T18:15:08","slug":"how-does-elon-musk-pay-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/how-does-elon-musk-pay-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Elon Musk Pay Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elon Musk is the CEO of companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, as well as a billionaire investor. People around the world are fascinated by his ambitious projects and his larger-than-life lifestyle. This raises the question of how Musk pays himself and funds his projects. Unfortunately, he does not offer a straightforward answer to this question.<\/p>\n

Musk’s level of compensation is largely unclear to the public. Companies are not legally required to disclose their CEO’s salary and Tesla does not disclose this information. Furthermore, Musk does not take monetary compensation for his position within the company. According to a Tesla proxy statement in 2020: “Mr. Musk has not received and currently does not receive any salary or other cash compensation from Tesla, but is eligible to receive future equity awards.”<\/p>\n

That being said, Musk still makes money while working at Tesla and SpaceX. He is one of the biggest shareholders in both companies and has many stock options. For example, in 2018, Musk received $2.28 billion in stock options which he did not cash out. According to James B. Stewart, a staff writer for The New York Times, Musk sold $172.3 million worth of stocks in two different transactions in 2019, but it is not known how much of that money was for his own personal gain as opposed to charitable causes.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Forbes estimates that eight companies that Musk has founded, including Tesla and SpaceX, have a combined market value of more than $150 billion. Consequently, Musk is reported to hold a 40% stake in both companies, which gives him substantial shares of their value. Reports from public documents suggest that from the years 2018–2020, Musk owned 33 million Tesla shares but he does not have any plans to sell them off. Consequently, he is estimated to earn tens of millions of dollars each year from dividends derived from the stock he holds in both companies.<\/p>\n